Finest, The
The Finest is a mercenary band composed of formorian soldiers. Two generations ago, a formorian leader feared that his forces would eventually be decimated by the duels so common in their culture. Fearing that they would lose their holdings if they lost more warriors, he struck on a new idea. The best warrior would no longer be important if he could push their competitive culture into forming the world’s greatest military unit. The first generation was fraught with many missteps as the unit experienced continuing duels and difficulties in finding prey worthy of their skills. Although dwindled during the initial periods, the group did survive. Eventually, the Finest did experience a change in their culture and they are now bent on proving themselves the finest “unit” in the world. Their teamwork and loyalty are first-rate, and they will kill any outsiders who join them but do not follow their extreme faithfulness. Though their numbers were small, in the last ten to fifteen years, they have grown to number around fifty active warriors. Each of these warriors could likely stand on his own against any other formorian, but they are committed to fighting together as a unit. The Finest are a mercenary group and will work for whoever offers them the “best” price. Often they will work for someone offering less money if there is something else of value thrown in. Value to the Finest could be a certain amount of prestige, access to items or resources they might value, or having their enemies handed over to them. Approximately thirty years ago, the band was hired to wipe out a village of rebel goblins. After accomplishing the mission, they took over the town, press-ganging other goblin tribes into building quarters more suitable to their size. Over the years, they have built up the town into Crownville. The buildings are built of stone, but there is no wall or other protection, because the Finest believe there is no force capable of standing against them. They have a small band of cyclopes who work for them as smiths and have crafted uniform armor and weapons of the best quality. (Emperor Baratock made the band return the goblins they had captured, but has supplied the Finest with labor in the form of criminals.) Crownville is dominated by the members of the Finest, but there are others there as well. Besides the cyclopes smiths and goblin chain gangs, there are formorian women used as mates and an odd collection of humans and orcs who work for the Finest. These mercenary humans and orcs act as scouts, sentries, men-at-arms and various other military tasks that the Finest are not suited for, either because of their size or their arrogance. The Finest have fought for the Wembic Nation and for many factions within Garnock. Should either go to war, it is likely that they would first attempt to gain the services of the Finest. It is unlikely that the Finest would go to work for any other group, due to a lack of trust. The Finest are unusual formorians, but they are by no means “good guys”. They are haughty and conceited, like most of their brethren; the exception is that they are conceited about their unit, and not just their personal skills. They believe that membership in the Finest is the highest honor that can be gained, and they will weed out any weak links within their own ranks. They are fierce in battle, and will typically only spare a life if they believe the person would be useful as a slave. They are completely sexist, and typically abuse the women in Crownville. Should an enemy unit taunt them, there is a strong possibility that they will break orders to engage that unit, though they will try not to let their arrogance cost their side a strategic position. (They might wait until later and then go hunt their adversaries.) The Finest are an infantry unit. They wear armor and carry shields. Despite the discussions of how much of a team they are, they are still not truly capable of forming a shield wall or other unit formations, but with their (literally) giant strength and exceptional training, they are a force to be feared on any battlefield. Category:Groups Category:Military Unit